The politics of

Mayotte Mayotte (; french: Mayotte, ; Shimaore: ''Maore'', ; Kibushi: ''Maori'', ), officially the Department of Mayotte (french: Département de Mayotte), is an overseas department and region and single territorial collectivity of France. It is loc ...

takes place in a framework of a French overseas

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

and

department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

, until 2011 an

overseas collectivity The French overseas collectivities (''collectivité d'outre-mer'' or ''COM'') are first-order administrative divisions of France, like the French regions, but have a semi-autonomous status. The COMs include some former French overseas colonie ...

. Local politics takes place in a

parliamentary A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democracy, democratic government, governance of a sovereign state, state (or subordinate entity) where the Executive (government), executive derives its democratic legitimacy ...

representative democratic Representative democracy, also known as indirect democracy, is a type of democracy where elected people represent a group of people, in contrast to direct democracy. Nearly all modern Western-style democracies function as some type of represe ...

setting whereby the President of the General Council is the

head of government The head of government is the highest or the second-highest official in the executive branch of a sovereign state, a federated state, or a self-governing colony, autonomous region, or other government who often presides over a cabinet, a gro ...

, of a

multi-party system In political science, a multi-party system is a political system in which multiple political parties across the political spectrum run for national elections, and all have the capacity to gain control of government offices, separately or in coal ...

Executive power The Executive, also referred as the Executive branch or Executive power, is the term commonly used to describe that part of government which enforces the law, and has overall responsibility for the governance of a state. In political systems ba ...

is exercised by the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

. The status of Mayotte changed in 2001 towards one very close to the status of the ''

département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level ("territorial collectivity, territorial collectivities"), between the regions of France, admin ...

s'' of mainland France, with the particular designation of '' collectivité départementale'', although the island is still claimed by the

Comoros The Comoros,, ' officially the Union of the Comoros,; ar, الاتحاد القمري ' is an independent country made up of three islands in southeastern Africa, located at the northern end of the Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean. It ...

. This change was approved by 73% in a referendum on Mayotte. After the constitutional reform of 2003 it became a ''

collectivité d'outre-mer The French overseas collectivities ('' collectivité d'outre-mer'' or ''COM'') are first-order administrative divisions of France, like the French regions, but have a semi-autonomous status. The COMs include some former French overseas colon ...

'' while keeping the title ''collectivité départementale de Mayotte''. Mayotte became an

overseas department The overseas departments and regions of France (french: départements et régions d'outre-mer, ; ''DROM'') are departments of France that are outside metropolitan France, the European part of France. They have exactly the same status as mainlan ...

of France (''département d'outre-mer'', DOM) on 31 March 2011 following the result of the March

2009 Mahoran status referendum A referendum on becoming an overseas department of France was held in Mayotte on 29 March 2009. Mayotte had been a departmental collectivity of France since 2001. In contrast to the four other similar regions (French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martin ...

, which was overwhelmingly approved by around 95% of voters.

Executive branch

The head of state is the

President of France The president of France, officially the president of the French Republic (french: Président de la République française), is the executive head of state of France, and the commander-in-chief of the French Armed Forces. As the presidency i ...

as represented by prefect Thierry Suquet. The head of government is President of the General Council

Soibahadine Ibrahim Ramadani Soibahadine Ibrahim Ramadani (; born 5 March 1949) is a French and Mahoran politician and formerly a member of the Senate of France, representing the island of Mayotte. He is a member of The Republicans and before that, its predecessor the Unio ...

Legislative branch

The

General Council General council may refer to: In education: * General Council (Scottish university), an advisory body to each of the ancient universities of Scotland * General Council of the University of St Andrews, the corporate body of all graduates and senio ...

(Conseil Général) has 19 members, elected for a three-year term in single seat constituencies. The island is represented by one deputy in the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...

of France.

Political parties and elections

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